STUDENTS hope to come up with an original recipe to excite

beer lovers on St Valentine's Day.

Beer in the Bath, Bishop Auckland Town Hall's third beer festival, runs from February 14 to 17.

The festival, organised by the Campaign for Real Ale's Wear Valley branch, will feature 25 real ales from around the country, plus two real ciders and a real perry from Somerset.

But the star of the show will be an ale created by students at Sunderland University for the Darwin brewery, in Crook.

The research centre has developed many unusual beers over the past few years, as well as recreating some long-extinct beers.

For their latest ale, students looked at recipes which were used 150 years ago, and came up with their own concoction using a special variety of oats.

Speaking from the university's Brewlab, HND brewery student David Ingle, 30, said: "We're getting some good taste results. It should be quite an exciting beer.

"We've been going over loads and loads of recipes and it's a combination of an old stout and porter recipe.

"We haven't used this many oats before.

"We're definitely coming to the festival, we have to try it in cask form."

The festival will also feature evening entertainment, with a folk night, jazz night and rock night.